Labour received the largest number of votes ever cast for a party in a London Assembly election, becoming the first party to poll over 1 million votes. Although they gained Merton and Wandsworth from the Conservatives, their regional vote share declined by 0.8%, and they finished with 12 AMs, the same as in 2012. The Conservative Party won just 8 Assembly seats, its worst-ever performance in a London Assembly election. The Green Party retained its 2 Assembly members, although its 8.0% share of the regional vote represented its worst-ever result, and UKIP returned to the London Assembly for the first time since the election of 2004. The Liberal Democrats elected just 1 AM, their worst-ever result.

Of the minor parties, the newly formed Women's Equality Party was the most successful, attracting 91,772 votes (3.51%) on the regional list, which did not entitle them to any Assembly members as the threshold for representation is 5% of the regional vote. No other party polled above 2%.

1.
London Assembly election, 2012
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The Assembly is elected by the Additional Member System. There are fourteen directly elected constituencies, all of which have, to date, an additional eleven members are allocated by a London wide top-up vote with the proviso that parties must win at least five percent of the vote to qualify for the list seats. All registered electors living in London who were aged 18 or over on Thursday 3 May 2012 were entitled to vote in the Assembly election and those who were temporarily away from London were also entitled to vote in the Assembly election. The deadline to register to vote in the election was midnight on Wednesday 18 April 2012, threshold to win seats, 5% 1UKIP constituency candidates stood under the label Fresh Choice for London rather than as UKIP. Greater London Authority Mayor of London London Elects homepage

2.
Jeremy Corbyn
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Jeremy Bernard Corbyn is a British politician who was elected Leader of the Labour Party in 2015, thus becoming Leader of the Opposition. He has been Member of Parliament for Islington North since 1983, born in Chippenham, Wiltshire, Corbyn attended Adams Grammar School and later North London Polytechnic, leaving without a degree. Before entering politics he worked as a representative for trade unions. As a backbench MP he was known for activism and rebelliousness, frequently voting against the Labour whip, including when the party was in government under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. As Labour leader, Corbyn advocates reversing austerity cuts to services and welfare funding made since 2010, and proposes renationalisation of public utilities. A longstanding anti-war and anti-nuclear activist, Corbyn supports a policy of military non-interventionism. He was the chair of the Stop the War Coalition. After Labours defeat in the 2015 general election and the resignation of Ed Miliband and he was elected leader of the Labour Party on 12 September 2015, with a vote of 59. 5% in the first round of the ballot. In June 2016, Labour MPs passed a vote of no confidence in Corbyn by 172 votes to 40 following the resignation of around two-thirds of Corbyns Shadow Cabinet. On 24 September 2016, following a leadership contest, Corbyn retained leadership of the party with a vote share of 61. 8%. Corbyn was born in Chippenham and brought up in nearby Kington St Michael in Wiltshire and he is the youngest of the four sons of Naomi, a maths teacher, and David Benjamin Corbyn, an electrical engineer and expert in power rectifiers. His brother Piers Corbyn is a weather forecaster and his parents were peace campaigners who met in the 1930s at a committee meeting in support of the Spanish Republic at Conway Hall during the Spanish Civil War. When Corbyn was seven years old, the moved to Pave Lane in Shropshire. Corbyn was educated at Castle House Preparatory School, an independent school near Newport, while still at school, he became active in The Wrekin constituency Young Socialists, his local Labour Party, and the League Against Cruel Sports. He achieved two E-grade A-Levels before leaving school at 18, Corbyn joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1966 whilst at school and later became one of its three vice-chairs. After school, Corbyn worked briefly as a reporter for a local newspaper, at around the age of 19 he spent two years doing Voluntary Service Overseas in Jamaica. Returning to the UK in 1971, he worked as an official for the National Union of Tailors, Corbyn began a course in Trade Union Studies at North London Polytechnic but left after a series of arguments with his tutors over the curriculum. He worked as a union organiser for the National Union of Public Employees and Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union

3.
Labour Party (UK)
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The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Labour later served in the coalition from 1940 to 1945. Labour was also in government from 1964 to 1970 under Harold Wilson and from 1974 to 1979, first under Wilson and then James Callaghan. The Labour Party was last in government from 1997 to 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, beginning with a majority of 179. Having won 232 seats in the 2015 general election, the party is the Official Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the party also organises in Northern Ireland, but does not contest elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Labour Party is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance. In September 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party, the first Lib–Lab candidate to stand was George Odger in the Southwark by-election of 1870. In addition, several small socialist groups had formed around this time, among these were the Independent Labour Party, the intellectual and largely middle-class Fabian Society, the Marxist Social Democratic Federation and the Scottish Labour Party. In the 1895 general election, the Independent Labour Party put up 28 candidates, Keir Hardie, the leader of the party, believed that to obtain success in parliamentary elections, it would be necessary to join with other left-wing groups. Hardies roots as a lay preacher contributed to an ethos in the party led to the comment by 1950s General Secretary Morgan Phillips that Socialism in Britain owed more to Methodism than Marx. The motion was passed at all stages by the TUC, the meeting was attended by a broad spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations—trades unions represented about one third of the membership of the TUC delegates. This created an association called the Labour Representation Committee, meant to coordinate attempts to support MPs sponsored by trade unions and it had no single leader, and in the absence of one, the Independent Labour Party nominee Ramsay MacDonald was elected as Secretary. He had the task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united. The October 1900 Khaki election came too soon for the new party to campaign effectively, only 15 candidatures were sponsored, but two were successful, Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby. Support for the LRC was boosted by the 1901 Taff Vale Case, the judgement effectively made strikes illegal since employers could recoup the cost of lost business from the unions. In their first meeting after the election the groups Members of Parliament decided to adopt the name The Labour Party formally, the Fabian Society provided much of the intellectual stimulus for the party. One of the first acts of the new Liberal Government was to reverse the Taff Vale judgement, the Peoples History Museum in Manchester holds the minutes of the first Labour Party meeting in 1906 and has them on display in the Main Galleries. Also within the museum is the Labour History Archive and Study Centre, the governing Liberals were unwilling to repeal this judicial decision with primary legislation

4.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses

5.
Nigel Farage
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Nigel Paul Farage is a British politician, broadcaster and political analyst who was the leader of the UK Independence Party from 2006 to 2009 and again from 2010 to 2016. Since 1999 he has been an MEP for South East England and he co-chairs the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group. A prominent Eurosceptic in the UK, he has noted for his sometimes controversial speeches in the European Parliament and has strongly criticised the euro currency. Farage was a member of UKIP, having left the Conservative Party in 1992 after the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. After unsuccessfully campaigning in European and Westminster parliamentary elections for UKIP since 1994 and he was subsequently re-elected in 2004,2009 and, most recently, at the 2014 European parliament election. He stepped down in November 2009 to concentrate on contesting Buckingham, in November 2010, Farage successfully stood in the 2010 UKIP leadership contest, following the resignation of Lord Pearson of Rannoch. Farage announced his resignation as leader when he did not win the South Thanet seat in Kent at the 2015 general election, in June 2016, Farage was a prominent supporter of the successful campaign for a vote in favour of leaving the EU in the UK EU membership referendum. On 4 July 2016, Farage again announced his resignation as leader of UKIP, diane James was elected to succeed him, but she resigned as leader after just 18 days and Farage became interim leader on 5 October 2016. A second leadership election was held in November, which was won by Paul Nuttall, Farage was ranked second in The Daily Telegraphs Top 100 most influential right-wingers poll in October 2013, behind Prime Minister David Cameron. He was also named Briton of the Year by The Times in 2014, Farage was born in Downe in Kent, England, as the son of Barbara and Guy Justus Oscar Farage. The Farage name comes from a distant Huguenot ancestor, one of his great-grandfathers was born to German parents who migrated to London in the 19th century. His grandfather, Private Harry Farage, fought in World War I and was wounded near Vimy Ridge at Arras and his father was a stockbroker who worked in the City of London. A2012 BBC Radio 4 profile described Guy Farage as an alcoholic who left the home when Nigel was five years old. From 1975 to 1982, Farage was educated at Dulwich College, on leaving school in 1982, he decided not to go to university, but to work in the City, trading commodities at the London Metal Exchange. Initially, he joined the American commodity operation of brokerage firm Drexel Burnham Lambert and he joined Refco in 1994, and Natexis Metals in 2003. Farage was active in the Conservative Party from his days, having seen a visit to his school by Enoch Powell. However, he voted for the Green Party in 1989 because of what he saw as their then sensible and he left the Conservatives in 1992 in protest at Prime Minister John Major governments signing of the Treaty on European Union at Maastricht. He was a member of UKIP in 1993

6.
Tim Farron
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Timothy James Farron is a British politician who became Leader of the Liberal Democrats in July 2015. He was elected the Member of Parliament for Westmorland and Lonsdale in 2005 and re-elected in 2010 and 2015, and was the President of the Liberal Democrats from 2011 until 2014. Farron was born in Preston, Lancashire and educated at Lostock Hall High School and Runshaw College, Leyland and he was president of Newcastle University Union Society, the first Liberal Democrat to hold the position, in 1991, having joined the Liberal Party at the age of 16. In 1990, he was elected to the National Union of Students National Executive, before his election to Parliament, Farron worked in higher education at Lancaster University from 1992 to 2002, and St. Martins College, Ambleside, from 2002 to 2005. Farron contested North West Durham at the 1992 general election, where he finished in place, behind the sitting Labour Party MP Hilary Armstrong. He then served on Lancashire County Council from 1993 to 2000 and was also a councillor for Leyland Central ward on South Ribble Borough Council from 1995 to 1999. Farron was selected to contest the Labour/Conservative marginal constituency of South Ribble at the 1997 general election, thereafter, he was a Liberal Democrat candidate for the North West region in the 1999 European Parliament elections. At the 2001 general election, Farron contested the Westmorland and Lonsdale seat and finished second and he then served as a councillor for the Milnthorpe ward on the South Lakeland District Council from 2004 to 2008. At the 2005 general election, Farron again fought Collins in Westmorland and Lonsdale, and he made his maiden speech in Parliament on 25 May 2005. As a new MP, he became a member of the Education, in 2005 he founded the All-party parliamentary group on Hill Farming, of which he was still chair as of March 2015. During Menzies Campbells period as the Liberal Democrat leader, Farron was Campbells Parliamentary Private Secretary, in 2007 he was made Liberal Democrat spokesman for Home Affairs. Farron resigned from the front bench of the Liberal Democrats on 5 March 2008 in protest at the partys abstention from a vote on the EU referendum. However he later returned to the front bench as spokesperson for Environment, Food. He is a member of the Beveridge Group within the Liberal Democrats, in the 2010 general election, Farron achieved an 11. 1% swing from the Conservatives, winning by a majority of 12,264 in his historically Conservative seat. This result was against the run of the rest of the party, making Westmorland, on 27 May 2010, Farron announced he would be standing for the position of Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, made vacant by the resignation of Vince Cable. On 9 June, Farron lost the competition to the former party President, Hughes won by 20 votes, having had 38 nominations from the parliamentary party, compared to Farrons 18. On 16 September 2010, Farron announced he would be standing for the position of President of the Liberal Democrats following The Baroness Scotts decision not to seek re-election and he won the election with 53% of the vote, beating fellow candidate Susan Kramer on 47%. Farron was one of only eight Liberal Democrats elected nationwide at the 2015 general election and he was considered a favourite to succeed Nick Clegg as Leader of the Liberal Democrats

7.
Liberal Democrats (UK)
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The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. The party was formed in 1988 as a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, at the 2015 general election, the party was reduced to eight MPs. Nick Clegg resigned as leader and Tim Farron won the subsequent leadership election, the party currently has nine MPs, following the Richmond Park by-election. The Alliance was led by David Steel and Roy Jenkins, Jenkins was replaced by David Owen, the two parties had their own policies and emphases, but produced a joint manifesto for the 1983 and 1987 general elections. Following disappointing results in the 1987 election, Steel proposed to merge the two parties, although opposed by Owen, it was supported by a majority of members of both parties, and they formally merged in March 1988, with Steel and Robert Maclennan as joint interim leaders. The new party was initially named Social and Liberal Democrats with the short form The Democrats being used from September 1988. The name was changed to Liberal Democrats in October 1989. The new party logo, the Bird of Liberty, was adopted in 1989, the party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and Liberal International. The then-serving Liberal MP Paddy Ashdown was elected leader in July 1988, at the 1989 European Elections, the party received only 6% of the vote, putting them in fourth place after the Green Party. They failed to gain a single Member of the European Parliament at this election, over the next three years, the party recovered under Ashdowns leadership. They performed better at the 1990 local elections and in by-elections—including at Eastbourne in 1990, Ribble Valley in 1991, the Lib Dems did not reach the share of national votes in the 1990s that the Alliance had achieved in the 1980s. At their first election in 1992, they won 17. 8% of the vote, in the 1994 European Elections, the party gained its first two Members of European Parliament. The election was, however, something of a point for the Liberal Democrats. Ashdown retired as leader in 1999 and the party elected Charles Kennedy as his replacement, the party improved on their 1997 results at the 2001 general election, increasing their number of seats to 52 and their share of the vote to 18. 3%. The party won seats from Labour in by-elections in Brent East in 2003 and Leicester South in 2004, under Kennedys leadership the majority of Pro-Euro Conservatives, a group of former members of the Conservatives, joined the Liberal Democrats on 10 December 2001. At the 2005 general election, the Lib Dems gained their highest share of the vote since the SDP–Liberal Alliance and won 62 seats. Many had anticipated that this election would be the Lib Dems breakthrough at Westminster, party activists hoped to better the 25% support of the 1983 election, or to reach 100 MPs. Much of the apparent lack of success resulted from the first-past-the-post electoral system, controversy became associated with the campaign when it became known that Michael Brown had donated £2.4 million to the Liberal Democrats

8.
London mayoral election, 2016
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The 2016 London mayoral election was held on 5 May 2016 to elect the Mayor of London, on the same day as the London Assembly election. It was the election to the position of Mayor, which was created in 2000 after a referendum in London. The election used a supplementary vote system, Goldsmith was more than 25% ahead of the next candidate in the first round of voting, as part of a record field of twelve candidates. Of the twelve candidates only Khan, Goldsmith, and Green Party candidate Siân Berry achieved the requisite 5% minimum first round vote share to retain their deposit. This was the first election to not feature either of the two holders of the office, Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson, who had run against each other in 2008 and 2012. The campaign was dominated by the battle between Goldsmith and Khan, and their contrasting class and ethnic backgrounds. Through his victory, Khan became the second Labour Party Mayor of London after Livingstone, the first announcement of the first round results indicated that Khan was leading. However, this count was later retracted, and official results were delayed pending errors in counting which reportedly misattributed hundreds of votes, when the full result including second preference votes was announced at about 00,30, Khan increased his lead over Goldsmith. There were a total of 2,596,961 valid votes and 49,871 rejected votes in the first round, in the second round a further 381,862 had not declared a second preference, with a further 2,381 rejected for other reasons. The position of Mayor of London was created in 2000 after a referendum in London, mayors are elected for a period of four years, with no limit to the number of terms served. Prior to the 2016 election, there had been two mayors since the positions creation, the outgoing mayor, Boris Johnson of the Conservative Party was elected as Mayor in 2008, defeating incumbent Labour Party mayor Ken Livingstone. Johnson was re-elected, again ahead of Livingstone, in the 2012 election, neither Livingstone nor Johnson stood in 2016, making it the first London mayoral election which Livingstone did not contest. And the first time a Mayor had chosen not to defend their position, since the previous mayoral vote, Labour had taken the majority of London votes and seats at the 2015 General Election, despite the Conservative Party winning the vote nationally. The election used a supplementary vote system, in which voters express a first, if a candidate receives over 50% of the first preference vote the candidate wins. If no candidate receives a majority, i. e. over 50% of first preference votes. The first preference votes for the two candidates stand in the final count. Voters ballots whose first and second preference candidates are eliminated are discarded, voters whose first preference candidates have been eliminated and whose second preference candidate is in the top two have their second preference votes added to the count. This means that the candidate has the support of a majority of voters who expressed a preference among the top two

9.
British National Party
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The British National Party is a far-right political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its current leader is Adam Walker and it currently has one councillor in UK local government. During its heyday in the 2000s, it had over fifty seats in local government, the BNP was formed in 1982 by John Tyndall and other former members of the National Front. By Tyndalls admission, it remained ideologically identical to the NF, during its first two decades, the BNP placed little emphasis on contesting elections, in which it did poorly, but rather focused on street marches and rallies. A growing moderniser faction was frustrated by Tyndalls leadership and in 1999 ousted him and this resulted in increased electoral growth throughout the 2000s, to the extent that it became the most electorally successful far-right party in British history. Concerns regarding financial mismanagement resulted in Griffin being ousted in 2014, by point the BNPs membership. Ideologically positioned on the far-right of British politics, the BNP has been characterised as fascist or neo-fascist by political scientists, under Tyndalls leadership, it was more specifically regarded as Neo-Nazi. The party is ethnic nationalist, and espouses the view that only white people should be citizens of the United Kingdom and it calls for an end to non-white migration into the UK and the removal of settled non-white populations from the country. Initially, it called for the expulsion of non-whites, although has since advocated voluntary removals with financial incentives. It promotes biological racism, calling for racial separatism and condemning mixed race relationships. Under Tyndall, the BNP emphasised anti-semitism and Holocaust denial, although Griffin switched the focus on to Islamophobia. It promotes economic protectionism, Euroscepticism, and an away from liberal democracy, while its social policies oppose feminism, LGBT rights. The BNP has a centralised structure that gives its chairman near total control. It established a range of sub-groups—such as a wing, record label. More widely, it was unpopular and faced much opposition from anti-fascists, religious organisations. BNP members were banned from a number of professions and polling suggested that a majority of Britons favoured the partys criminalisation, the British National Party was founded by the extreme-right political activist John Tyndall. Tyndall had been involved in Neo-Nazi groups since the late 1950s before leading the far-right National Front throughout most of the 1970s, following an argument with senior party member Martin Webster, he resigned from the NF in 1980. In June 1980 Tyndall established a rival, the New National Front, at the recommendation of Ray Hill—who was secretly an anti-fascist spy seeking to sow disharmony among Britains far-right—Tyndall decided to unite an array of extreme-right groups as a single party

10.
Respect Party
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The Respect Party was a left-wing political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, the Respect Party was established in London by Salma Yaqoob and George Monbiot in 2004. It grew out of the Stop the War Coalition, and from the start revolved largely around opposition to the United Kingdoms role in the Iraq War. Uniting a range of leftist and anti-war groups, it was allied to both the far-left Socialist Workers Party and the Muslim Association of Britain was a coalition affiliate. In 2005, Respects candidate George Galloway was elected MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, the party made further gains in the 2006 and 2007 local elections, at which point its support peaked. In 2007, a schism emerged in the party between SWP-supporters and the Respect Renewal group led by Galloway and Yaqoob, the group left the party to form the Left List. Over the coming years, Respect gradually lost the seats that it had gained. Ideologically characterised as a left-wing or far left party, Respect adhered to an ideology of revolutionary and this socialist current has been described as being Marxist in orientation. Opposed to neoliberalism, it called for the nationalisation of much of the UK economy, increased funding to public services and it was Eurosceptic and promoted an anti-imperialist worldview. It was also Anti-Zionist, opposing the existence of Israel and endorsing the Palestinian solidarity movement, Islamism was also a component of its ideology, treating it as part of a wider alliance between socialists and Islamists within Western Europe. Respect have been characterised as a far left party by political scientists. The socialist activist Tariq Ali characterised the partys programme as being social democratic in orientation, eran Benedek described the party as an amalgamation of radical international socialism and Islamism, adding that its radical socialist position was informed by Marxism-Leninism and Trotskyism. Similarly, Emmanuel Karagiannis characterised the party as the epitome of the convergence between radical left and Islamist groups in Western Europe, the partys policies have been described as traditionally leftist and anti-capitalist. Respect encouraged the nationalisation of many sectors of the economy, including the railways, water, gas, electricity, and it urged a substantial increase in corporation tax in order to increase funding to public services. It sought to overturn what it described as anti-trade union legislation, Respect promoted revolutionary socialism and international socialism. Respect was anti-globalization, believing that it resulted in the exploitation of the working class and it also expressed a Eurosceptic approach to the European Union, deeming the Union to be lacking in democracy and exploitative toward the working class. Respect was anti-Zionist and rejected the state of Israels right to exist and it rhetorically presented this position through the terminology of social justice and human rights. One of its core principles was stated support for the Palestinian people and it was constitutionally committed to supporting the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the boycotting of Israel